


Hot Water

by bivvii



Series: Unfinished Hermit Bits [1]
Category: Hermitcraft RPF
Genre: Angst, Beef wants retribution, Drowning, Gen, Mild? Manipulation, Nightmares, Psychological Torture, Torture, Trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-02
Updated: 2020-08-02
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:21:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25658116
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bivvii/pseuds/bivvii
Summary: Beef has had enough of Keralis messing with him and his resort. With the help of Etho, he plans on making sure Keralis is put in place for disturbing business.
Relationships: None
Series: Unfinished Hermit Bits [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1860502
Kudos: 45





	1. Chapter 1

His resort was a spectacle. Amongst the many businesses he ran, it was certainly the most profitable. It was what kept him so comfortably residing within his Hacienda in spite of the setbacks. The threats he had received from the Goatfather were a momentary scare. But the growing rumors of the father's absence put Beef's concerns for his life, for his resort and for Matilda at ease. Unfortunately for him, the Goatfather wasn't his only concern. 

  
  


"Seems you've got a lot to complain about, Beef."

  
  


Etho tried to keep his composure steady. He'd been in this position before, sitting in his diminutive seat under the heavy shadow of the self proclaimed Llamadad. And under the trap just above his head that he was painfully aware of from his last visit. The main difference between then and now though was the fact that Beef didn't seem anywhere as amiable as he was before. There was an unsuited hardness to his eyes. Etho tried to appear calm, but deep down he was worried where this conversation was going. 

  
  


"Which is why I'm going to need your assistance." Beef leaned forward in his seat, hands crossed under his chin. A smile ran across his lips, which would have been an assurance to Etho had it not been so forced. "My neighbor, Keralis, is becoming… a bit of a nuisance. But he knows this, and he knows how I feel about him. So there's nothing I could do to him directly without him knowing it was me. So… I'm going to need you to help me  _ take care _ of him."

  
  


There was a silence that hung in the air for a beat that Etho broke with a laugh. Not out of amusement; There was nothing remotely funny about what Beef was suggesting. It was just that Etho could hardly fathom his brusque request. There was no way Beef wanted Keralis… He couldn't even think it. The Beef he knew could never hold such spite for a person. Right?

  
  


And it seemed he was right because Beef chuckled, the smile on his face growing. 

  
  


"For a second there I thought you wanted me to help… you know. Kill him or something," Etho sighed, nerves easing a bit. 

  
  


"Oh no, no, of course not! Let me be a bit more specific." Beef was still smiling that bright smile Etho was so familiar with. But his posture was still so stiff, so intense. "Earlier this year, my resort was supposed to open up a cruise line that would bring the fine villagers of this resort along the coast and past a shipwreck nearby. You were there when I made the announcement, yes? You knew how excited everyone was for it?"

  
  


Etho nodded. Not that Beef gave him much time to respond before speaking up again. "Yet the very next day, I wake up to find that the wreck has disappeared and my boat has been  _ 'struck by lightning' _ ." Beef was seething, eyes locked intently on Etho. As much as the stare made Etho sink back in his seat he couldn't help but feel like it wasn't his face Beef was seeing, was glaring daggers into. "And let's not forget the lighthouse, and the noise complaints, and poor endangered turtle he displaced. All for the sake of expanding his business empire into  _ my _ territory. And to think I built him a piano in that damn  _ diamond _ office."

  
  


Beef scoffed, face screwed in disgust as he sat back in his seat, eyes finally leaving Etho. "You and I are business partners, yes?"

  
  


"Y-yeah." Etho cursed himself for stuttering, hoping Beef hadn't noticed it nor the way he gripped the arms of his chair, nails digging nervously into the wood. 

  
  


"So as such, we need to defend each other's business interests. Interests Keralis seeks to disturb. He could ruin everything, Etho. Everything you and I have worked for- have toiled for." His gaze fell back on Etho, much softer this time, a tense smile growing against his lips. "So no, Etho. I don't want you to help me  _ kill _ Keralis. I want you to help me- help us in ensuring Keralis does not  _ fuck _ with us ever again."

  
  


Etho was silent for a moment. Staring into the newfound darkness in Beef's eyes, he knew there was no way to reason with him. Not now, and not like this. Not when there was a set of anvils ready to bludgeon him to death if he said something Beef wouldn't like.

  
  


"Ok." Etho's voice was barely a whisper. It was all he could muster without the possibility of his voice giving out on him. He had to let Beef think he was on board, that there wasn't the slightest hint of uncertainty. "I'll help you. But this could be dangerous, Beef. I could get in deep trouble for this-"

  
  


"Oh, trust me, Ethos, you will be more than fairly compensated for this. Don't you worry." Beef was smiling again, his tone returning to one Etho was more comfortable with. "Besides, I would never put my partner in a position that could get him into any  _ serious _ trouble."

  
  


He rose from his seat, dressed in that neat light grey suit, and approached Etho on his side of the desk, hand outstretched. When Etho stood, his legs felt weak, his head swam, and he couldn't shake the sickening feeling in his gut. Regardless, he shook Beef's hand. Just as Etho was about to pull his hand away, Beef's grip grew iron clad and suddenly Etho was stumbling forward, Beef tugging him closer. 

  
  


"I wouldn't be asking you this if I didn't trust you. I need you to trust me too," Beef whispered, eyes locked with Etho's. "Do you trust me?"

  
  


Etho was sure Beef could feel the sweat against his palm, could hear his quickened and unsteady heartbeat. He wasn't sure his voice wouldn't betray him, but he also wasn't sure a nod would be convincing enough for Beef. So he swallowed down the bubbling anxiety in his gut and made eye contact with Beef, matching his hardened stare with his own.

  
  


"I trust you." 

  
  


.

  
  


He made it out of Beef's Hacienda in record time, and was thankful to finally break into open air because the gilded household and Beef's presence still bearing down on him- in spite of the fact that he'd left Beef in the meeting room, insisting on escorting himself out- seemed to be choking the breath straight out of his lungs. And his legs were still useless underneath him, nearly giving out as he stepped into the sandy resort. He relied on his elytra to carry him away. He didn't know where he was flying- didn't have a destination in mind. He just had to put some distance between himself and Beef.

  
  
  
  



	2. Chapter 2

Keralis' grumbles were drowned out by the raging thunderstorm beyond the wood and glass walls of the Barge. Every clap of thunder roaring against the now pitch black sky caused the Barge to rock against the waters, something that brought Keralis no measure of comfort. On top of learning Mathilda was gone and being drenched in rain, he was now suffering from motion sickness. 

  
  


He'd come to the Barge on Etho's request. He wanted to meet here to discuss what songs Keralis had wanted tuned into the elevators of his office building. Well, more specifically he wanted to discuss payment, considering Keralis couldn't seem to keep himself from incorporating the very diamonds Etho needed from him into the various rooms of his office.

  
  


"Isn't he supposed to be here by now?," he huffed to himself, letting his body sink to the uneasy floor of the Barge. He had been pacing about before, trying to keep his mind away from the store's unsteady movements- an effort of little effect. Yet, sitting down didn't seem to be helping either. "I'm surprised Bdubs hasn't slept away this rain yet."

  
  


Then the thought of sleep entered his mind, and now, on top of suffering the freezing rain and the rocking, creaking Barge, he was tired. 

  
  


_Screw it. I'll just take a nap until Etho gets here._ Not that he had much of a choice. He could already feel the tug of sleep weighing heavily on him. Before he knew it- before he could even think of sleeping- his eyes had closed, and the deep darkness of slumber took him. 

  
  


That darkness didn't last though. Little particles began to appear around him, and if not for their pale white color drifting so starkly against the inky blackness surrounding him, he likely wouldn't have noticed them. It reminded him of the End, except there were no obsidian towers, no creepy enderman, nothing. Just void. 

  
  


But the void didn't last long either. His vision began to pull back and back until he was seeing an explosion of blue, swirling about the pit of darkness like a violent tempest. It took him a moment to realize that it was someone's eye he was looking at, and then a face. Beef's face. His expression was blank yet intense, and he stared down at Keralis with a severity he'd never seen on Beef before. 

  
  


Keralis tried to focus on something besides the man staring at him, but found that he couldn't move- couldn't divert his focus towards anything beyond his neighbor. But by the creaking wood and rocking of the floor beneath him- both more violent now- he could tell he was still on the Barge. But that didn't matter now. Because his vision faded into darkness again. 

  
  


When reality came back to him, he was moving- walking. Beef had a hand on his shoulder beckoning him beyond the door of a device with a blinking red light overhead. As Keralis moved- not exactly against his will, but not fully himself either-, he heard Beef's voice. It was muffled though, like he was underwater. Yet, he could still hear Beef's words clearly.

  
  


"Just stand in the water and wait." Keralis did so, bare feet sinking into the freezing cold water which came up to his waist. It seeped into his already soaked clothing. The only thought afforded to Keralis in the moment was that it was weird that the cold wasn't bothering him right now. It was as if he couldn't feel the water at all. 

  
  


"Last time, I held end rods, which didn't go too well. And then Wels had blaze rods…" Beef seemed to be speaking absently to himself. He sounded like himself, but when he appeared in the doorway he looked the same as before- expressionless and stiff. Keralis' vision was pulled closer now- or did Beef just move closer? He was bathed in the undulating red light above them, so close that Keralis could see the void- now tinted in red- swimming in his blown out pupils. "Why don't you hold both?"

  
  


Beef's mouth didn't move when he talked, his voice emanating from somewhere else entirely. It was a thought most odd to Keralis not because of the nature of it but because it wasn't all unsettling to Keralis. It should have been. But he seemed incapable of garnering any unease what so ever from the fact that Beef's voice wasn't coming from Beef. That was when Keralis realized just how numb he felt- how weird this all was. How was it that he could think normally but couldn't move on his own, couldn't speak, couldn't feel, couldn't do anything but what Beef wanted him to do?

  
  


Before he could even realize that he'd reached out and took something from Beef's hands, he was holding a blaze rod in his left hand and an end rod in his right. 

  
  


"Alright, I'm going to close the door now. When this is over, I'll take you home, okay?"

  
  


Keralis wondered for a moment if he actually nodded. But that didn't matter now. The door clicked shut. He could hear the sliding of metal locks around him, locking him in the small cramped box, something that brewed no measure of paranoia within him. 

  
  


The red light stopped blinking, growing steadily brighter instead. The box began to rock, gently at first but growing more violent. The water around his waist began to boil and fill the box with steam. And the rods in his hand, subtly, began to vibrate. 

  
  


For some reason, he began to submerge himself in the boiling water. And still, even as his head sunk beneath the water and as he was consumed with the hot, searing pain and as the vibration of the rods rattled him to his core, threatening to crush him under the sudden and oppressive pressure, he didn't feel the slightest bit afraid. He felt calm. 

  
  


The world around him began to darken as his whole body racked with pain. He was dying, he was sure of it. He could feel it. He could feel his skin boiling and his head beginning to split and everyone of his faculties beginning to shut down as his lungs were entirely purged of air. He was descending into an everlasting unconsciousness, and he was at peace.

.

He breached the water with a start, lungs and skin burning, arms thrashing about into open, cool air. But that wasn't right. His arms should have hit the walls of the device. He still should have felt the heat of the steam. And there should have been two rods in his grasp. And yet, here he was. Dry, empty handed and not in pain, laying in the center of his office.

  
  


Keralis sat himself up, panting, trying to make sense of what just happened. But after a minute of doing so, he found that it just didn't make sense. It had to have been a dream. Or a nightmare. Yeah, nightmare would be more appropriate.

  
  


But there was something else bothering him. How did he get home? He was alone in the Barge. If it was just a dream and Beef didn't come find him, then who brought him home? Was it Etho? It must have been. Because he certainly wouldn't have flown all the way here with how violent the storm was.

  
  


Which reminded him. He looked over towards one of the windows and listened. It was dark still. And the storm was still raging, beating against the windows. 

  
  


Keralis cringed as he stared at the heavy drops of rain, threatening to burst through the windows and consume him, to drag him back into that unsettling nightmare. To make it a reality. 

  
  


He almost shrieked when he felt something wet on his face, instead flinching hard and practically slapping himself with how fast his hand came up to wipe the wetness away. That's when he found out he had been crying, thick tears streaming down his face without wanting to. He gave into the feeling that overcame him then. The burning, strangling anxiety that made his vision go blurry with tears, and his face go hot and his body begin to shake with nerves.

  
  


He curled into himself, arms hugging his legs, fingers clawing into the skin beneath his pants, and sobbed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is all I have so far for this story. I may revisit it in the future, but that's all for now


End file.
